Today, which we call Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday is always a bit awkward and makes one feel somewhat disoriented. We just went through the Passion of Our Lord the day before. He is now in the tomb. What do we do now? I can appreciate the sense of confusion, sadness, disorientation, and despair the disciples must have felt on that day, for Easter had not yet come.
Haiti too is in a long Holy Saturday. Haitians just went through the greatest suffering in a long time (they are reminded of it every time there is an aftershock or every time they see rubbles all over the city or when they suddenly remember they had one more daughter or one more uncle or a father…). There are talks of reconstruction, talks of a new Haiti on the horizon, but for many it is but talk. There is no evidence. Tomorrow may bring great things, but today is hard, disorienting.
Tomorrow will come indeed, but not in the form that some may think. I am optimistic about Haiti. I believe she will indeed rise again. Yes, someday there will be plenty of electricity, good roads, clean water, competent hospitals, food, etc. We must all work hard so that Haiti will see its Easter Sunday in glory. But you know, the ultimate Rise cannot be merely material, political, nutritional or anything else earthly—not that the earthly is not good (It is), but because the earthly will never suffice. We will hunger for more peace, more justice, more goodness, more truth, more beauty, more, more, more. This thirst for more can only be satisfied by the infinite, the one who IS Peace, Justice, Goodness, Truth, Beauty and LIFE. Yes Christ alone can give any nation what it truly seeks. If our desires settle for anything less, well…we’ll know.
So, let us work to bring the poor of Haiti to a better place indeed in this world and pray that we all reach the home that has been prepared for us by our Lord where we shall live with our heavenly Father in the Spirit.
